2nd EURAF Conference, 4-6 June 2014, Cottbus, Germany

Pick Your Factsheet!

The increased demand for meat is driven by a rising human population, and a dramatic growth in meat consumption per person. Farmers and scientists have sought to curb the adverse environmental impacts of livestock by increasing production efficiency, and reducing its contribution to human consumption. Reduction in livestock feed components, which compete with human food crop production, is one approach to mitigating negative environmental impacts and strengthening future food security.

Featured Farm of the day

Between 2007 and 2010 the city established five agroforestry plots with trees for valuable timber production on city-owned land, sized 0,15 to 0,75 ha. The city decided for valuable timber trees, among other reasons because it couldn’t guarantee the maintenance of traditional orchard trees on the selected plots in the long-term.

Re-discover the use of trees in Zambia - field report from development project

21 Dec 2018

by Anna Manourova and Bohdan Lojka

Members of Czech national EURAF group (Czech Agroforestry Association), namely Anna Manourova and Bohdan Lojka, have spent two weeks in Zambia, particularly its Western province (Barotseland), as a part of a broader team working on the development project focused on local farmers’ agri-business improvement and financed by The Czech Development Cooperation.

The main aim was to teach students about agroforestry practices at the local University of Barotseland and to identify potential multipurpose indigenous tree species, which may contribute to product diversification and improve livelihood strategies of rural communities. The agroforestry lecture was of a great success with nearly 50 students creating a living audience, asking canny questions. In the field, the team managed to detect about 12 different underutilized trees worth noticing, mainly fruit and oil species.

As the projects in Zambia will continue for at least two more years, we will make sure that agroforestry will always play an important role in local agribusiness planning, whereas it will be seriously valued on the educational level as well.

Agroforestry is the integration of woody vegetation, crops and/or livestock on the same area of land. Trees can be inside parcels or on the boundaries (hedges). Agroforestry can be applied to all agricultural systems, in all parts of Europe.